We've seen a lot from Gwen and Blake, but they aren't the only struggle going on right now. What about the others? Outside the mural, another battle is just getting ready to start!

We've got a decent amount of votes in the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Semi-Finals! The current lead runners in the polls may surprise you! The shakeup really makes me realize how a girl may be in many people's top 5, but not necessarily in their top 3. So I'm certainly feeling more than a little surprised Looks like the girl I'm pulling for isn't going to win, but that's fine. They're all wonderful girls! If you want your best girls to make it to the final round and beyond, then make sure to get your votes in! You have 3 votes, make them count!

Semi-Finalists: Cynthia, Ayame, Sango, Kate, Marion, Alcea

EESDESESESRDT6: …Sure. "Sense".

ConfusedCradily: Not sure if that's such a good idea. Last time someone tried locking her up, it did not… go that well. She needs help, not prison.

KedharS: Only one or two… dozen.

Aquahaze675: I'd suggest checking out Chapter 20 (Chapter 19) for further details.

Thunder Fire: I like that idea. Shocked, that's why.

Guest: To be fair, Gwen is a little… complicated. She has aspergers syndrome, so she has difficulty functioning socially, which is fine on its own, but when you factor in the debilitating effects of harmonia, she becomes someone who is… hard to deal with.

Tambry96bj: Trouble might be understating it.

DJ Dib Dab: Well, only the one dysfunctional family, Blake's. Not a lot of other dysfunctional families here, at least not focused on yet, anyway.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 273

"Castform…" Silver was floating above the archway leading into the ruins, watching the battling pokemon trainers with worry on his face. He knew that Sango was going in to save Blake, and while she was handling that, the trainers outside the ruins were fighting with one another. The small pokemon gulped. He wasn't sure if there was anything he could do to help the trainers who were fighting on the same side of his partner, he wasn't a fighter. All he could do was watch, and hope that the rangers would be there soon.

"Damn, this is awful!" Kate griped, shielding her eyes from the torrent of sand swirling around them. The Tyranitar's sandstorm had increased in power, slamming around into their pokemon, which were little more than vague, shadowy blobs on the battlefield. Like this, it was difficult to get a bead on the situation and react, and it didn't help that Lumia was getting worn down by the sandstorm, either.

"Tyrant, rip her apart with stone edge!" Val's voice called over the whirling sand. Tyrant stomped on the ground, ripping stones up out of the ground, and flinging them at Lumia.

"Lumia, dodge!" Kate ordered. Lumia tried to dodge, she really did, but that would require her seeing the direction that the stones were coming from. And the sandstorm made that rather difficult. Lumia shielded her eyes, searching the stinging grains for dark shadows indicating the approaching attack. But Vileplume were already not the most mobile pokemon. When she saw it coming, the stones were already upon her, and it was all she could do to minimize the damage by turning her bulky body.

"Vileplume!" Lumia wailed, the stones beating down on her.

Lumia's powder moves won't be able to do anything, Kate bitterly noted. The sand is too fierce, it would just end up getting swept away and dispersed.

"Lumia!" Kate shouted. "You need to blow away the sand! Use petal blizzard!"

"Vileplume!" Lumia shouted, the massive flower on head shaking. A burst of petals erupted from the center in a column of swirling blades, a blizzard of razor-sharp petals colliding with the sandstorm, pushing it back slightly. The blades sliced towards Tyrant, bouncing off against his scaly hide. Some of the petals cut into him, but most of them were blunted by the sand, and had all the strength of throwing actual flower petals at the hulking pokemon.

"You thought that would be enough?" Val tittered. "My Tyrant will make short work of that meager little stench monster of yours. Tyrant! Beat her down with another stone edge!"

"Tyranitar!" Tyrant snarled, tilting back his head and letting out a roar so loud the sand itself seemed to be shaking.

"Well if the grass attacks aren't working, we'll have to use our specialty, Lumia!" Kate called over the buffeting sand. "Use sludge bomb!"

Lumia tilted her head down and the petals of the flower adorning her head flexed, a blast of sludge firing out. Sand struck the poison and got swallowed by it, the texture becoming warped and crumbly. But it didn't do much to dilute the poison or even slow down the movement of the stuff, the sludge bomb colliding with Tyrant's body.

"Tyranitar!" Tyrant roared in pain, the stones he had torn out of the ground flying at Lumia. Lumia was beaten back by the attacks, Tyrant giving back as good as he got, maybe even better.

Tyrant stormed forward, shaking off the sludge, unfortunately not poisoned. His lumbering form towered over the prone Vileplume, stones hovering up around him.

"Lumia!" Kate cried.

Reiner was having slightly better luck in his fight against Rui, as Scipio was not as hampered by the sandstorm due to being a rock type himself. But that wasn't to say that he wasn't having problems of his own. The sand was continually scruffing up Scipios' hide, preventing him from using rock polish to increase his speed. Which was letting him be overcome by Rui's Mamoswine, and in particular, the lightning-fast shards of ice she was firing at the bulky fossil pokemon.

"I must say, while I prefer the hail, the sandstorm isn't as bad as it could be," Rui purred. "I don't like her much, but Val is quite good at coming up with strategies like this."

Reiner scowled. So that was the plan. That girl had been planning for this to come to a battle, and had used her Tyranitar to set up a sandstorm. Meanwhile, the other two girls had sent out pokemon that would fight unencumbered in the sand, while Kate and Nikita were at the disadvantage. It was only due to the grace of Scipio being Reiner's strongest pokemon that he hadn't sent someone out that would have been just as poor off.

"Scipio, use ancient power," Reiner ordered. Scipio raised his claws, the pincers glowing with white energy. Massive stones of energy manifested around Scipio's body, and with a swipe of his arms, the stones flew right at Mami.

"Ooh, I love it!" Rui giggled. "Mami, use your ancient power, too!"

"Mamoswine!" Mami bellowed, stomping on the ground, her furry hide glowing white. Stones of energy were conjured around her body, and she flung them in a wave at Scipio's own ancient power attack. The stones of energy collided in midair, equal in power. They shattered into glistening shards of light and dust, which were quickly swept up in the sand.

"Our attacks are evenly matched!" Rui tittered, giving Reiner a wink that went unseen from behind the cloud of sand. "We really are fit for one another, don't you agree?"

Reiner scoffed, rolling his eyes. Rui shrugged.

"Well, we can talk about all that after!" Rui smiled, shifting gears from flirting to fighting. "Mami, take that Armaldo down!"

"Mamoswine!" Mami lowered her head and barreled forward, her tusks extended and pointed straight towards the smaller pokemon.

"Scipio, crush claw!" Reiner ordered. Scipio raised his claw, energy surging through it, and ran forward to swing a strong blow at the massive pokemon. But Scipio wasn't fool enough to attack from the front of a charging Mamoswine. Instead, he moved to flank from the side. But he wasn't fast enough.

"Mamoswine!" Mami opened her mouth, chunks of ice coalescing in front of her. She fired them at high speed, blasting through the sand. Mami aimed low, pelting Scipio's feet. The bulky pokemon was tripped up by the cold ice freezing him to the rocky ground, flopping onto his front.

"Scipio!" Reiner cried out, Scipio shakily rising to his feet just as Mami collided with him. Upon hitting the fossil pokemon, Mami pulled to a sudden stop, the full brunt of her body pushing into Scipio, sending him flying through the sandswept air.

Scipio tumbled through the sky, hitting the ground hard.

"Icicle crash!" Rui crowed. Mami stomped the ground, and the rocks beneath her feet began to freeze, a layer of ice coating over it and spreading out across the plaza towards Scipio. As the icy floor spread, massive icicles erupted from it, spiking straight at Mami like a tidal wave. The wave of icicles crashed into Scipio's body, piercing him from multiple points and knocking him backwards.

Reiner scowled. This wasn't good. Scipio's speed was enough to compete with these powerful ice moves. But at the same time…

"Scipio! Tear free!" Reiner ordered, Scipio raising his claws and smashing them down on the icicles piercing into his carapace. The icicles broke into dust, Scipio landing on his feet. "Now, hit her with a water pulse attack!"

"Arm," Scipio nodded, opening his mouth. A current of water swirled in front of it, coalescing into a single sphere of watery energy that he fired at the bulky mammoth pokemon. The water pushed through the sand, dampening it. It wasn't the best that he could have done. Scipio's special attacking power was already rather weak, and the sandstorm was absorbing the brunt of the rest of it, as well. But Mamoswine were still weak against water-type moves, and it was the best he could do right now with the sand hampering Scipio's movements.

"A water move, huh? That's a surprise! But nothing we can't handle, right Mami?" Rui chuckled. "Use ice beam!"

"Mamoswine!" Mami opened her mouth and a beam of concentrated icy energy shot out from within it, striking the sphere of water directly and freezing it into a solid chunk of ice. The orb wasn't only frozen solid, but its momentum was frozen, as well. The ice fell out of the air and hit the ground, shattering into pieces.

"Well, that's not going well," Reiner murmured, raising his eyebrow.

Reiner and Kate were both on the defensive, but Nikita was probably the one doing the worst out of the three of them. She wasn't exactly the master battler, and compared to Reiner and Kate she was rather mediocre. And while her opponent was only a young girl, her fighting power was a lot higher than her stature seemed to suggest.

And she has harmonia… Nikita wailed internally. She was probably fighting the strongest of the three, and with her having the least experience with pokemon battles this was clearly not going well for her, even if Hammy was her best battler.

Moomin stomped his hooves, flames erupting from the miniature volcanos on his back and raining down on the battlefield, burning around the sands. But they weren't connecting enough to do any real damage. The reason for this was because Hammy wasn't focusing on fighting. No, the round pig pokemon was putting his energies to something much more important: protecting himself.

"Grumpig," Hammy said dumbly, a barrier of light engulfing his body as flames and sand beat down on him. The naturally oblivious pokemon wasn't even really paying the attacks any mind, just generally keeping to himself.

"Bleh! Hammy!" Nikita spat out sand, wiping her face, and called to her pokemon. She wasn't trying to win this exchange, and she seriously doubted that she could. The best that she could count on was to stall the enemy trainer until the pokemon rangers came and bailed them out. Nikita gulped. She could only hope that Hammy would hang on…

Hammy's protective barrier faded, and the sand began slamming into his smooth body. Even that seemed to go unnoticed, although his health was still draining.

"Hammy, try a psybeam," Nikita suggested. Hammy didn't acknowledge that he heard her, but still moved per her wish, standing up on his hind legs and dancing from one foot to the other. The pearls on his head began glowing with rainbow light, and the pearl on his stomach began glowing as well, the energy firing off in a beam of psychic power.

Moomin winced, the psychic attack striking him, but not doing much damage. He barreled through the sandstorm, the grains of sand bouncing harmlessly against the compressed matt of fur on his hide. He charged straight at Hammy, the ground shaking with every step.

"Magnitude," Nikita recognized. "Hammy, bounce!"

Hammy bounced up into the air, dodging both the tremors shaking the field as well as catapulting himself high over the large pokemon that was about to run into him.

"Think you can escape by going up?" Alk raised her head, glaring through the sand. She could make out the image of the Grumpig, and with her senses linked to her Camerupt, that meant her pokemon knew exactly where to aim. She didn't have the power left to strengthen Moomin's abilities with harmonia, but they still had the benefit of knowing exactly what the other was experiencing. Moomin braced his body, widening his legs, and concentrated energy into his humps.

"Now!" Alk ordered, Moomin releasing the power he had stored in a massive eruption attack, blasting through the sand and engulfing Hammy in a powerful wave of rock and flame.

"Grumpig!" Hammy cried out in pain, the magma badly burning his body. The waves of erupting power hit the ground, smothering the sands, and Hammy along with them. Hammy hit the ground hard and wailed in pain, rising to his hind legs and stumbling back. Nikita gasped in shock, Hammy was almost completely beaten, he only had a few slivers of health left.

"Finish it with an earth power," Alk ordered, her hair standing on end. It was all for show, of course, her harmonia not being able to actually amplify the Camerupt's power. Moomin unfortunately did not need much to amplify his power, though. He stomped on the ground, and the rocks beneath Hammy's feet began to glow with magmatic power, erupting out from underneath him.

"Hammy!" Nikita cried as the ground beneath her pokemon's feet exploded with fire and rock, blasting the sandstorm into a wave of destructive force. But when the power finally died down, much to Nikita's good fortune, Hammy had not been injure by the attack. He was still rather beaten down from the previous eruption, a barrier of green and purple light oscillating in various patterns wrapped itself around the round pokemon, the earth and fire raining down harmlessly onto it. Nikita let out a sigh of relief. Hammy was able to put up a protection before it was too late.

Unfortunately, while the barrier protected her from the earth power, it wouldn't last forever. It began to die down, and the sand moved in to take back the space that it had dispersed, buffeting Hammy even further and wearing down his health more.

"Grumpig…" Hammy was no longer oblivious to what was going on. He was being badly beaten by the sand, relative to the amount of health he had left. Another minute or so of this, and Moomin wouldn't even have to use another attack, Hammy would already have reached the end of his rope.

Nikita swallowed. She wasn't sure what more she could do. She was running out of time, fast, and her brain wasn't exactly coming up with a load of ideas she could implement. This sandstorm was causing problems for all of them, it felt like.

"Castform…" Silver watched the fight, feeling exceedingly worried. Things weren't going well for Sango's friends. They were being beaten down slowly but surely, and weren't able to do much to fight back. Silver looked around frantically. His partner had said that the rangers would be coming, so where were they? Why weren't they here already? Would they get here in time? The pokemon trainers couldn't hold out forever under these circumstances. There… there had to be something that he could do, right? Any way he could help?

A blast of sand struck Silver in the face, and he began coughing and spitting. This stupid sandstorm…

Silver's eyes widened. He suddenly had a good idea. It was the only thing he could think of, and it was pretty much all he could do to help the other pokemon. He wasn't very good at fighting, but this, this was something that he was used to, something that he could do very well.

Silver began concentrating energy into his body, glowing with a soft, orange light.

"Castform!" Silver cried, releasing the energy he collected into a concentrated burst of orange light that shot into the sky, illuminating the desert night with an artificial sun.

"What the-?!" Val whirled around to stare at the Castform in shock. The rays of light and the heat began pulsing, the winds dying down and the sand slapping harmlessly to the ground. The sandstorm was gone, now, replaced with a bright, glowing sun that was now shining like a beacon for the town below to see.

And see it certain people did.

Elizabeth and Uboss had just gotten started up the stairs when the night sky suddenly became… not-so-nighty.

"What the…" Elizabeth's mouth fell open, and she gave Uboss a look.

"Sunny day, if I had to guess," Uboss said, recalling his own experience with the move, when Sango would show off what Silver could do as a child.

"It came from the mural, right?" Elizabeth murmured, shaking her head. "That's really not a good thing. It looks like there's something going on up there."

"Agreed," Uboss said, removing a pokeball from his belt and releasing Crest, his Skarmory. He looked back at Elizabeth. "We need to go, now."

"Then what are you waiting around here for?" Elizabeth asked, climbing onto Crest's back, Uboss smiling and climbing on behind her.

"Crest, get to the top," Uboss ordered. Crest nodded, and flapped his wings. Flying with two humans wouldn't let him go as fast as he would like to, but he would get there soon.

"What a pest," Val scoffed, turning away from the Castform. "Oh, well. Tyrant, tear that damn Vileplume apart with stone edge!"

"Tyranitar!" Tyrant nodded, stomping his feet, ripping stones out from the platform he was standing on and flinging them at the injured Vileplume.

Kate smirked.

"Lumia, dodge!" She called.

"Vileplume!" Lumia shot forward, darting around the stones, effortlessly closing the distance between her and the Tyranitar in the blink of an eye. Tyrant swung his tail at the flower pokemon, but Lumia jumped over it easily, dodging the attack and circling behind the large, bulky pokemon.

Val scowled. What was with that speed?

"Bothered?" Kate smiled. Sunlight and chlorophyll was one of the strongest combos that her highness had at her disposal, and as her number one pupil, Kate had seen these movements better than anyone. She may have been a poison type trainer, but she was going to be borrowing a few notes from Alcea's playbook in order to serve Val some of the righteous defeat that she needed.

"Tyrant, don't let her escape so easily!" Val snapped. "Stone edge!"

Tyrant ripped more stones out, and flung them up into the air, not at Lumia, much to Kate's surprise. Val smirked.

"Now, rock slide!"

The stones exploded in the air as they plummeted towards Lumia, sharpening and hardening into a wave of rock that threatened to bury Lumia alive. It seemed that Val had more tricks up her sleeve than just flinging rocks at her.

"Vileplume!" Lumia lowered her head, and a beam of compressed sunlight erupted from the center of her flower, blasting a massive hole through the wave of rock and slamming into the Tyranitar standing behind it, knocking the rock pokemon off of its feet.

"Sorry Val!" Kate snapped, the girl glaring back her. Kate's scowl shifted into a smirk. "I'm not the scared little girl you used to torment anymore!"

Thanks to a little help with Silver, it seems like things are taking a better turn than they were before! Will our heroes be able to turn things around? Or will the evil girls be able to overcome their challengers and escape?